How do I protect my car from sugar mill dust and road grime in Port Allen?

Wash more often during harvest, decontaminate the paint once the season ends, and keep a layer of protection on it the rest of the year. Between roughly October and January the cane harvest puts a fine, dusty film on anything parked along River Road, the Intracoastal Waterway and the truck routes off I-10. That dust is abrasive, so the one thing to avoid is wiping it off dry, which drags grit across the clear coat and leaves the swirl marks that show up in sunlight.

A normal rinse takes the loose dust off. What it leaves behind is a bonded film of grime that makes the hood feel gritty under a fingertip. Our wash, clay and seal (from $145) uses a two-bucket hand wash, an iron remover and a clay bar to lift that film, then lays down an SiO2 sealant so the next round of dust has nothing to grip. For a vehicle that lives outside in West Baton Rouge year round, a graphene ceramic coating (from $750 and rated for three years) keeps that slick surface through several harvest seasons.

Bird droppings and oak sap sit on top of all this in summer, and both etch paint within hours in the heat, so rinse them off the same day you see them. We come to Port Allen driveways and yards with our own water and power.